Red's Branch

Day 240: I have to admit to cheating here. I don't usually doctor nature photos unless it's to remove small bits of dirt or holes from leaves and petals, and even that is something I do rarely, preferring to show the specimen exactly as I saw it. However, Red is just cute as a bug's ear, and his preferred shelter is a broken wisteria trig caught under the soffit of my carport. It protects him from both wind and rain, an alternative to the clothesline under my back porch awning when the breeze is from a different quarter. The wisteria branch projects out just far enough for the light to catch his brilliant throat feathers, but the background of ugly soffit was more than I could stand. I took a deliberately out-of-focus shot of the dogwood beside the driveway and pasted Red and his twig over it, paring away 90% of the original photo. I think he'll be much happier in this setting until the weather changes.